The Avalanche on Thursday announced days and times for next week’s on-ice development camp skates. They are 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Like Avalanche practices, they are free and open to the public. The Avs will introduce their top three 2015 draft picks — forwards Mikko Rantanen (No. 10 overall) and A.J. Greer (No. 39) and defenseman Nicolas Meloche (No. 40) — to the Denver media Monday afternoon.

I spoke to new Avs winger Blake Comeau on Thursday, and that story will be published in Friday’s paper and online. Comeau, who was acquired Wednesday in free agency, played with Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay during his two partial seasons with the Calgary Flames in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

“Both those guys reached out to me yesterday, which was nice,” Comeau said. “It’s always nice when you have some familiar faces when you’re going to a new team.”

Comeau is also buddies with Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie, a fellow alumni of major-junior’s Kelowna Rockets. Comeau is five years older than Barrie, but both are active in the Rockets’ alumni circles and grew up in the Vancouver area. Comeau spent much of his youth in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, and has always been fond of the west. His parents live in Calgary and he and his wife have a 20-month daughter and another child on the way.

“I kind of wanted to be back out west,” Comeau said.

The slow season is almost upon us. I’m headed to the lake this weekend and Terry Frei returns from vacation Monday, and he’ll handle the Rantanen/Greer/Meloche interviews. Happy 4th, folks.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.